Time for the Blazers to aqcuire a team in Europe?

[Village Idiot]

The full roster thread got me thinking that maybe the time is now for us to aqcuire a team in Europe which we could use to develop our young players and especially our young Europeans.

Petteri Koponen and Joel Freeland are two players who could presumably develop much more rapidly and in a way getting them ready for the NBA game if we controlled their destiny.

We could also use our European club to develop coaches.

With 6 2nd round picks the need is acute. Imagine how much better it would be if we could sign them to reasonably priced contracts over there and let them run Blazers plays and develop.

There may be legal obstacles to such a transaction on both sides of the pond. Anyone know of any NBA by-laws prohibiting such a thing?

[BlackMamba]

is that possible? i mean, to have an nba team and a european team? some sort of nfl europe?

if the blazers can i think they should, it could serve as a place to develop players and to have certain players until they are available to play in the nba.

[salaner]

It makes strictly no business sense.

[ebott]

I wonder what David Stern would think about that. I don't think there's any rules against it right now. But if you've got an NBA owner buying a European club and filling that club with players they have the rights to seems like an obvious circumvention.

You're going over the 15 player roster and you're paying guys that aren't counted under your cap space.

That said, I think Paul Allen and company should totally go for it. Buy a team in one of the better leagues (I'm thinking Spain) and fill it with our guys and our coaches.

[SabasRevenge!]

It's become pretty obvious to me that the NBA needs to get rid of or expand the 15 players under contract rule and designate at least one developmental league team to each NBA team. The players union would have to be ecstatic if the league didn't limit teams to 15 players under contract, so I can't see a problem from their end.

IMO the only way to really grow a successful D-League would be to make it a place where most of the players are affiliated with an NBA team, like in MLB. It will never be very successful if it's just a league full of guys hoping they'll get a ten-day contract if someone gets injured. If the Blazers had a D-League team close by with Freeland, Koponen, McRoberts, and Green (maybe Ha!), I'd go to as many games as I could. Perhaps we could keep a team in Idaho or have one in Montana to increase our fan base.

With the recent ascent of international basketball, I could see the NBA expanding the draft to more than 2 rounds again.

[Dome]

Isn't this exactly what the NBDL was set up for?

[Village Idiot]

Isn't this exactly what the NBDL was set up for?

The NBDL is for players under NBA contract and undrafted players or players whose rights are not owned by a team. Not an ideal solution for a team like us with three recent first round picks overseas, a full roster and another 8 draft picks coming the next two years.

[b_roy7]

I'm all for it. Wouldn't we be the only team with a European team? Paul Allen wouldn't even feel a thing after he bought a team.

[magee]

Mickey Arison, the Heat's primary owner, partially owns a Euroleague team. There isn't anything against owners owning other sports entities, otherwise, they wouldn't be good businessmen.

If I were Allen, I'd try to acquire a small team in Spain for the prospects they own rights to. Good location, closer to the States, and the best ball in Europe collectively since most of the basketball money pours in there.

One thing I'd like to the NBDL adopt is a recovery period for injured players. In the MLB, players go down to AA and AAA for shorts stints while they get back in shape. I'd like to see this happen to players who miss at least 25% or more of the regular season. It would give them playing time on the court as well as a chance to iron out the kinks they had while sitting out. Practice can only do so much. This would've been great for Darius Miles. Just think of all the basketball he could've played for Idaho this season while recovering from his knee injury. He wouldn't affect the Blazers and other teams would get a chance to see if he's worth trading for. Talent wise, he is, but his contract and the fact he hasn't played in over two seasons says otherwise. The D-League would be the perfect place for injured players to get back in the swing of things.

My guess is once the U of O complete their arena, Allen will buy a D-League team for Eugene. Close to Portland, great arena and good basketball town. They could be called the Eugene Quacks or Eugene Mallards. or something frivolously gay like that to tie in with the local sports team. I'm hoping he does. I wouldn't mind seeing Petteri Koponen down here.

[SabasRevenge!]

Isn't this exactly what the NBDL was set up for?

It will never work that way if teams are only allowed 15 players under contract.

[DeezXXnutZ]

Then we could win championships in Europe and the USA...Blazers = World Domination......

[d-train]

Seems like a lot of trouble to groom the 11th or 12th guy at the end of the bench.

[magee]

^At least they'd be playing somewhere, let alone under some of the Blazers' front office staff.

[Mil]

This is an interesting idea, but I think you would need to learn a bit more about the way basketball works over here in Europe.

For example take the ACB league, which is the top Spanish basketball league. While player talent is no doubt lower than in the NBA, pressure might actually be higher. This is because unless you have a proper team (not just a random collection of good players) and a coach that actually knows the system, you will lose a lot of games. And if you are on one of the last two places (of eighteen) at the end of the regular season, there's no draft to bail you out: you get relegated to a lesser league, where teams get much less money and attention. As you can imagine, teams work very hard to avoid this.

Also, there's no concept of basketball "franchises" over here. Instead, we have basketball "clubs" with very close ties to the town they come from. This means the fan base usually takes their club very seriously and would not react kindly at all if they think the club's owners are hurting it. If that harm is because the owners are using the club as mere developing ground for young players, that would add insult to injury.

So, NBA owners looking to acquire an European team better do a lot of research before.

[Tim Lehrbach]

The players union would have to be ecstatic if the league didn't limit teams to 15 players under contract, so I can't see a problem from their end.

I doubt it. Being squeezed out of the league is tough, but expanding the number of players in the NBA would give current players a smaller piece of the pie. Or I could be wrong, I dunno.

[magee]

I wouldn't say expanding the number of players on a team is a good idea. Maybe make the draft have four rounds, with players' rights being a big part of where they get to play. Within five years, each NAB team will probably copy what the Spurs and Lakers are doing and own their own NBDL team. A lot of those players would have their rights owned by whatever team they're on. It would be more like a minor league system, and with the amount of players getting better and better, it wouldn't be a bad idea to go that route.

The D-League has a lot of potential. Let's hope the Blazers get on it sooner than later.

[Village Idiot]

Personally I wouldn't advocate buying a Spanish team. I'd go for Italy where the competition level is a bit lower and the team would be cheaper to buy. The chances of relegation would be a lot lower as well given the talent level there.

I realize the difference between a club and a franchise. Frankly I think the European system of a club prostituting itself to a sponsor and losing it's own identy is unfortunate. I commend Barcelona for refusing to do this and for building up their own brand.

In Europe the fanbase is far too often a group of rowdy men looking for an excuse to get drunk and throw ****. Positioning a European basketball team as family entertainment could be very successful in the right market and could help basketball in general.

I don't agree with you supposition that placing NBA drafted talent would be hurting the club either. Far too often is Europe you get this whole seniority system which is contrary to the whole system of meritocracy which I favor. If the Portland TrailBlazers were to front a team in Europe I'd hope they'd try to win in additon to developing talent. The two are in no way mutually exclusive. Many teams have a B-team for the guys who are still developing. No reason for our European club not have one as well. As long as all the players practice together and get rewarded for effort I'll be happy.

[mojomarc]

-= original quote snipped =-



I doubt it. Being squeezed out of the league is tough, but expanding the number of players in the NBA would give current players a smaller piece of the pie. Or I could be wrong, I dunno.

No, you're right. One of the primary functions of unions is to limit the number of potential employees that an employer can hire, thus making the labor force artifcially scarce. Scarcity makes those who do make the cut more valuable, pushing up their salaries. This is why the union fought for so long against the expansion to 15--it allowed the 52% of revenues (or whatever it was at the time) to be spread over fewer players, allowing the owners to agree to higher max salaries for both the stars and the marginal players.

[Mil]

I realize the difference between a club and a franchise. Frankly I think the European system of a club prostituting itself to a sponsor and losing it's own identy is unfortunate. I commend Barcelona for refusing to do this and for building up their own brand.

I happen to be a Real Madrid supporter so I don't want to get drawn into a discussion about Barcelona but I can assure you that fans don't generally see adopting a sponsor's brand as part of the official club name (which fans never use anyway) as losing the club's identity. On the other hand e.g. moving the club to another town would be unthinkable.

In Europe the fanbase is far too often a group of rowdy men looking for an excuse to get drunk and throw ****.

Depends on the country and the sport. I wouldn't say Spanish basketball is like that at all -- that kind of people would follow football instead.

Positioning a European basketball team as family entertainment could be very successful in the right market and could help basketball in general.

Hm. Again, one needs to know a market very well before having an idea of what would be a good product for that market. Families already follow all sorts of sports, but most do it through the T.V.

I don't agree with you supposition that placing NBA drafted talent would be hurting the club either.

What I mean is that I wouldn't expect talent to be a problem, but a lot of things other than talent can go wrong: chemistry, knowledge of the way the game is called, relationship with the basketball authorities, relationship with the fans. I have found that American businessmen buying e.g. English football teams tend to underestimate these, especially the last point.

[Goldbum]

Screw buying a Euro team buy a D League team. SAS and LAL already own their own teams and are useing them to cultivate talent and acclimate players to their system.